Cocktail Oddities
Lookout for a new foodie fad, which I hope will die a quick and painless death - bizarre cocktails.
Today, the Wall Street Journal (subscription-only) had a cover story about cocktails that feature added ingredients ranging from chili peppers to graham crackers:
Bartenders are throwing so much food into mixed drinks that the wet bar is starting to resemble the salad bar.
Blue cheese, cucumbers and pieces of ham are showing up in cocktail glasses. Chili peppers, avocados, figs, truffles, cream cheese, graham crackers, fish, gelatins, foams and flowers all are swimming in gin or cognac or champagne.
"When it goes in your mouth it, like, explodes," said Maggie Poetz, an interior designer from Jupiter, Fla., tasting a $10 concoction called "92 in the Shade" at the Blue Water Grill in Manhattan. The drink is made of mango puree, tequila and a red habanero pepper syrup.
Dailey's Restaurant and Bar in Atlanta serves the "Dirty Maytag Martini," garnished with an olive stuffed with blue cheese. Saucebox in Portland, Ore., makes drinks with crushed Thai basil. Denver's Blue 67 offers a ground-coffee-bean martini for $8. Other bars garnish with everything from olives stuffed with prosciutto or caviar, to pickled okra, apple slices and ramps (wild leeks).
Behind the food surge is a flood of new specialty beverages on the market. Fifty-three new cordials and liqueurs were introduced in 2002, up from 18 in 2001 and 17 in 2000, according to the Distilled Spirits Council in Washington. Four times the number of flavored vodkas and rums were introduced in 2002 as in 1999. In order to draw attention to each of these new beverages, liquor companies hire "mixologists" to concoct new recipes. The best way to hit promotional pay dirt is to come up with something truly bizarre and exotic.
The article includes kudos to my friends at Dylan Prime in Tribeca who have come up with a collection of Pie-tinis and Cake-tinis. Tried them once when I was at their bar, the Laight Lounge. Once was enough. If I want a drink instead of dessert, I'll order a Kir Royale or glass of Muscat.
And, today's food section in the Daily News extolled the virtues of new flavored vodkas:
Three different apple vodkas were introduced this year to exploit the recent craze for appletinis. Zygo, a peach-flavored spirit with such New Age ingredients as taurine and guarana, is meant for people who mix vodka with Red Bull energy drink.
Cocktail purists are not entirely pleased.
"They do expand the range of flavors a bartender has to work with," says Dale DeGroff, a bartending consultant and author of "The Craft of the Cocktail." "But these products are just a shortcut for bartenders who don't want to use fresh ingredients or liqueurs."
With the notable exception of two vodka brands out of California - Hangar One and Charbay - the flavored products now available have candylike flavors. That's no accident.
"America is a soda pop culture," says Ronn